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The Benefits of LinkedIn

If you’re looking for a way to get more business connections (and potentially customers!), LinkedIn is a great free tool to get you networking with likeminded people.

Here’s a few reasons why you should set up your own profile today:

LinkedIn has over 200 million users worldwide and is the third most used social networking website next to Facebook (1st) and Twitter (2nd). There is plenty of potential here for all businesses!

Getting yourself on LinkedIn is incredibly easy to do and it’s a great way for people to find out more about you and your expertise. It’s also another way for people to find businesses as you can include company overviews, weblinks, and social media links.

LinkedIn has a large number of groups for professionals to join and interact with each other. These groups function as a forum for members to have real-world conversations about products, issues, opportunities, events, and referrals of information. For virtually everything, there is a corresponding group available. It’s worth having a look to see what groups are available – you never know, you and prospective clients / suppliers could eventually be part of the same LinkedIn groups!

LinkedIn is one of the best business tools for growing your network – as soon as you’re connected to someone you can immediately see their entire network. You can then ask your current connection for an introduction or send a request directly to the person you’re looking to contact (if you know them). The other advantage is that you can see the route you need to take to reach someone meaning it’s easier to get straight to the right person.

Similar to Facebook, there is a LinkedIn ‘Home’ screen which displays all the updates from your connections. If you update your LinkedIn status with information, your connections will see this when they login. They can also choose to ‘Like’, ‘Comment’, or ‘Share’ your status which can expand the reach of the message.

Everyone on LinkedIn has a choice to receive weekly digest emails from their connections. It gives you an overview of status updates, new contacts made in your circle of friends, etc. This means you’re up-to-date with what’s happening and your messages could still have visibility / promotion for at least a week after you originally posted it.

Most of LinkedIn’s additional functions are free so why not take advantage of them! These include poll options and the ability to upload Slideshare presentations.